


Lost, Found.

by cheesetoastie



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: F/M, London
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 06:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/949483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheesetoastie/pseuds/cheesetoastie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Listless, alone in a towering metropolis, she seeks nirvana. Peace and serenity where there is none to be found. As she stared at the cityscape, awed by the towering nothingness of a city full of life, world views were challenged. Things changed. Perhaps for a moment, perhaps for a while, or perhaps forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost, Found.

London, like many large cities, was as lonely a place to be in as it was terrifying. There were people everywhere; hoardes of tourists armed with cameras and grins, rucksacks worn on the front to avoid theft, wearing navy blue hats with the union flag on them; businessmen and women hustling through the hurly-burly to get to meetings filled with mediocre coffee and stale conversation; friends, families, groups of people gathered together to enjoy the rare sun and the freedom that life in the city can grant you; street performers desperately attempting to make a living off of talents as yet undiscovered. She stood in line, watching people go about their lives, all of them oblivious to her sorrows. Whenever she felt alone, lost in the crashing tsunami of the city, she came here. To where she could breathe, where she could achieve clarity above it all. Where, on a clear day, she could see forever. It wasn’t a cheap habit - being a great attraction for tourists, the London Eye was not something one could afford to experience regularly, but really she only visited when things felt bleak. And boy, did they.

She sat, crossed legged on the floor, gazing out across the water to see the great jagged teeth of the city sticking up into the sky, enjoying the perpetual sense of being weightless, of slow movement gently coaxing you across the horizon. An odd figure, one all clad in fuzz and smiles sat next to her, and she removed her earphones.  
"It’s a stunning view" he said, transfixed on the city. She smiled at his wonderment, his roguish charms and childlike grin bearing upon her like a hug from a long missed relative.  
"It’s life. Dirty, noisy, wonderful. And you can view it safely from your very own glass bubble." She spoke through her shields, allowing this boy to enter her world for the briefest moment in human history, and he turned to look at her, pulling his eyes away from the greyness of the city. His brown eyes were wide, kind, searching.  
"Why just look at it when you can experience it though? How can you appreciate how amazing something is from the other side of a window?" He made sense. He made sense in a way that very little ever made sense. She understood what he was telling her, what he was saying.  
"It’s safer. Less scary." She muttered, training her eyes upon the horizon once more.   
"Not as exciting though. What’s exhilarating about looking at something? To really find out what it’s about, to really truly experience life, you have to live it." She smiled a bit then. This boy was speaking to her soul, warming her from the inside until she felt alive again.  
"You’re Australian." She stated, boldly, in an attempt to change the subject.  
"Your avoidance technique needs improving. But yeah, I’m from Sydney." He smiled, rooting in his pocket. His hat sat upon his hair like a bird perched in her nest, awaiting prey that flew close enough to warrant leaving her chicks.  
"You’re not a regular tourist." She chanced, glancing at the boy once more. He looked about 17, his face lit up with joy like a Christmas tree is lit with tiny, twinkling lights.  
"No, I guess not. How could you tell?" He drew his hand from his pocket, his phone in hand.  
"You’re alone. Also, no camera." He laughed at her statements, and nodded. His eyes crinkled as his giggle pealed around the pod full of people, all experiencing their London, the London of memories to come. "You’re right. I’m actually leaving tonight, I just wanted to see the city one last time before I go. I’ve had the most wonderful time here. I wouldn’t ever want to forget it." She smiled sadly, his intonation tugging at her heart in a way unfamiliar to her.  
"You won’t forget it. Nobody ever does. London has drawn you in with her sights and her sounds. She has you by the heart now, and that’s not something that you just forget." He looked at her, making eye contact with a stranger on a ride above London’s streets, sharing a moment with another who understood.  
"I hope you’re right." He smiled softly, and handed her his phone. She looked at him, her brows deeply furrowed. Two souls lost, and found, in the city of London. "Could I please have your number? I know it’s pretty forward but it’s also important to me that we don’t lose this connection."

She typed in her name, her number. She entered herself into his life story, a name and a face to be considered in his biography. “I’m Ashton, by the way.” He said, as he stood to exit the pod, now stopped at the bottom again as the trip had ended.  
"Thank you, Ashton. Thank you." She said, smiling at him with tears in her eyes as she gazed once more upon the boy who brought her serenity in a dark hour, made her see the beauty in the light at the end of the tunnel, not just the futility of finding ones way toward it. The boy who gave her hope.


End file.
